


It's Just Business

by TetrodotoxinB



Category: MacGyver (TV 2016)
Genre: Feelings, Gen, Hugs, Hurt/Comfort, Jack attempts to be mature, Mostly just comfort, Post-Episode: s01e21 Cigar Cutter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-12
Updated: 2019-07-12
Packaged: 2020-06-26 18:56:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,250
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19774348
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TetrodotoxinB/pseuds/TetrodotoxinB
Summary: After Riley is forced to kill the fake Dr. Zito, Jack is worried about how she's doing.





	It's Just Business

**Author's Note:**

> A quick and dirty one-shot. No beta. We die like men.

It doesn’t take a genius or a head-shrink or whatever those people are called for Jack to know that Riley’s hurting. She’s been quiet ever since shit went sideways with Murdoc’s little pet. After a few years learning how to speak Mac, Jack knows that smart + quiet = wrong. 

He finds her sitting on the deck railing outside one of the break areas. He pretends to stub his toe and then tries to open the door the wrong way, just to give her some warning. It wouldn’t help much if he scared her into falling two stories to the forest floor.

“How’s it going Stevie Jobs?”

Riley shifts but doesn’t turn to look. “I’m fine.”

“Right. You’re fine. Explains why you haven’t slept since last week,” Jack says as he leans on the railing next to her.

She does turn to face him then, her face set into an angry scowl. “Did you just come out here to complain about my demeanor? You want me to smile, too?”

Jack sighs. “Look, Riles. I know how you feel. I remember the first time I pulled the trigger on someone. I wasn’t even old enough to drink but man I sure wanted to.”

“So that’s the Jack Dalton wisdom you came out here to share with me?” she interjects. “Just go get drunk and I won’t feel awful for killing someone?”

“That’s not what I’m saying. I’m saying it hits a lot of people like this, and if it didn’t, I’d have some questions. I know Mac still has a hard time with it, hell sometimes I do, too, and both of us have killed a whole lot of people.”

Riley sniffles and looks down. “Look, I appreciate you coming out here, trying to make me feel better, but I’m not sure you can just take away what I’m feeling.”

“Probably not,” Jack agrees. “‘Course it depends on what you’re feeling.”

“Is that your line to get me to open up?” Riley asks with a chuckle.

Jack laughs. “Yeah. Is it working yet?”

Riley makes an annoyed noise bordering on “ugh.” “Fine. I killed a person. I mean, sure, he was a total piece of shit, but someone somewhere loved him. He was someone’s son, someone’s friend, and now those people are out there grieving because I killed him.”

Jack nods. “Yeah. That’s some heavy shit and you’re not wrong. That’s true of pretty much every person I’ve ever killed — they had husbands, wives, kids, parents — and now those people are hurting because of something I did.”

“Where’s the part where you help?” Riley asks. Jack can tell she’s aiming for angry, but her question just comes off as slightly hysterical.

Jack sighs. “Look, the thing is, stuff like this, it’s business, and I don’t mean for you. So let’s say I wanna open a restaurant. I gotta take some risks, right? I gotta front a bunch a money. I gotta sign some contracts — maybe a lease or something. Okay, look, I don’t know shit about restaurants, but the point is, in business, people make choices. They accept that by doing something, there are potential losses. So, when someone decides they’re gonna go out and do something violent — join the military or a militia or a merc group or whatever, they’re doing it knowing that these jobs come with the chance that their work will get them hurt or killed. So look, homeboy knew there was a risk, and if there wasn’t, he wouldn’t have been packing.”

Riley’s brow is furrowed, the way she gets when she’s thinking really hard about something, and Jack hopes his “wisdom,” as she’d called it, is starting to sink in. “So you’re saying that because he chose to do something violent, he was responsible for the outcome?”

“Yep.” _Easy peesy. This girl’s a natural,_ he thinks. 

“Okay, but the Phoenix Foundation is essentially paramilitary. So by that same logic I’m responsible, too. I chose to work here. I chose to go down to the server room and I chose to fight that guy instead of running.”

Jack adjusts his elbows on the railing so he can rub his hands over his face. “You’re doing that thing Mac does.”

“Thinking?”

“ _Over_ thinking. You didn’t put in a job application here, we kinda... gently press-ganged you. And the job description was more techie nerd analyst voodoo than field agent-”

“Which explains why you’ve been teaching me martial arts,” she deadpans.

“Look. If you keep poking holes in everything it’s not gonna hold water. I’m trying to hand you a bucket to bail your ship with, and all you’re doing is using it for target practice. Now, listen. I know this is hard. God knows I wake up some nights and just can’t get some of this shit out of my head. I’m not trying to minimize what you’re dealing with. But you gotta realize that you didn’t go after him, he came after you. That was his choice and you were never obligated to lay down your life for his bad decisions. That’s what this really is. So take it or leave it, but eventually you’ll either realize that I’m right or you’ll burn out on the job because you can’t deal with what we do. You’re gonna need to sort out which one it’s gonna be.”

Jack watches it happen in slow-motion. The way her face bunches up, like she’s trying to fight off the emotions, and then simply can’t. Gently, he slips an arm around her and urges her off the railing. The way she folds into him, her face buried against his shoulder as she cries, Jack can’t help but think about all the years with her he missed because he was too chicken shit to commit to really being her dad.

“It’s alright. I know. I got you.”

She shakes as she cries and Jack can feel that his shirt is wet from her tears, but he holds on because she’s holding on. One thing he learned from his nephew is that you always hug someone until they don’t need it anymore, and she clearly still needs it.

Slowly, her breathing evens out and the shaking that makes Jack’s chest ache stops. Jack lets her go.

“You alright?”

She nods and wipes at her cheeks. “Yeah.” It’s a lie as much as it’s the truth and Jack wishes there were a way to put into words how well he knows what she means.

“Alright, well you know that any time you anything, and I mean it, anytime — two in the morning, Cairo day, you name it — you just call me, okay? I know I ain’t always been there for you when I shoulda been, but I’m- I, uh-”

Riley smiles and nods, cutting Jack off and saving him from making an ass of himself. Again. “Yeah, I get it. Thanks, Jack.”

Jack smiles and squeezes her shoulder. “Now if you’ll hurry up we can still make the lunch buffet at the Chinese joint down the road.”

Riley rolls her eyes. “Jack, that place is like a feed trough. It’s disgusting.”

“Nothing wrong with feed troughs. Cows eat out of them. You eat cows. ‘S basically like eating out of a feed trough. We’re just gonna cut out the middleman. Now come on.”

She’s not better, not by a long shot, but then things like this take time. The best he can do is be there to help her pick up the pieces along the way.


End file.
